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Improving eBay Searches

Updated Feb. 11, 2004 6:46 p.m. ET

Vivisimo Inc., a developer of an Internet search technology that clusters results into categories in seconds, has found another messy corner of the Web to organize: the product listings on eBay Inc. Vivisimo says its search algorithm, which analyzes text in product descriptions and generates its own categories, produces more intuitive results that eBay's search engine, which mines the descriptions and categories that sellers attach to their wares. For example, a query for "digital camera" on eBay yields a wide range of items, plus links to confine the search to a specific category. The same search on Vivisimo...